New Year

Happy new years everyone!

I didn't get the afternoon nap I'd hoped for, so I was already quite tired with a 4am wake up looming ahead. But I wanted to try for midnight anyways. Our whole crew decided to go for dinner at a german restaurant that people had been talking about the whole time for some reason. It was good, but way too much meat. Though one guy demolished his plate, over half of another guy's plate, some bits and pieces, a couple beers and a wine and a dessert and some more dessert, it was amazing (and frightening) to see.

Back to the hotel and a bit more work. A few people went to the lounge right away, so the few of us who didn't went down after a short while to join them. But they were gone cause it kindof sucked there. But we found a cigar room which was quieter and comfier and noone else there and a TV if we wanted. So the others came back and joined us. I had been considering going to the Hyatt where the band I've mentioned plays, but everyone else was just hanging out there so I stayed with them. Hyatt was probably too full to enter anyways. So we hung out and chat, a couple people were stinky and had cigars. Watched some cars on tv (the cartoon that is) then some x-men. Someone got some champagne so when midnight finally came, I had a mouthful of that disgusting stuff, just for the sake of it. Actually the guy who ordered it also finds it disgusting, which makes it surprising he spent $100 for it. I guess he's big on tradition ad wanted to keep the occasion somehow 'special'. So that was that, a little while later we all retired to our rooms.

Worried that I already started self-sabotaging though. Had invited someone we work with at the airport to join us for dinner. Said she'd message me after work, but didn't, guess I felt kindof 'betrayed'. I messaged her later to make sure it wasn't cause something bad had happened, but things were fine. Later when I was in the cigar lounge with workmates she messaged that they were going to the Hyatt, which was where I had already been thinking of going. I waited a bit and told her it was too late (cause it was getting close to midnight). But I'm concerned, was the reason I didn't go because when I asked her to come she didn't so now that she asked me to come I wouldn't? Or was it because I wanted to just spend it with my workmates who are kindof like a mix between friends and family out in the field. I really hope it wasn't the first reason. Hope I didn't start 2008 being a jerk who decided to try to 'punish' a friend.

Happy new year

Just cause I worked over 20 hrs then slept for 2 and worked another 16 and lost $46000 of data from being stupid doesn't mean it was a completely bad day. A girl asked for my phone number! Heheh. You know, even if there's no real attraction or romantic stuff or anything, it's still pleasant to have female company. For example our field manager's wife has been around this past week, and I've really enjoyed her presence (though I'm sure he's enjoyed it more!)

Don't know what I'm up to tonight, still kindof tired and didn't get the nap I planned, but happy new year everyone! I'll be seeing it before most of you :P I'll let you know how it looks.

I really f'd up today

and cost an estimated $46000 for the company on a stupid incompentency-based mistake.

Massage

I've never got a real massage before, but I found myself with a spare hour yesterday and coworkers had been talking about this one place, so I decided to check it out. Only like $20 for an hour anyways, might as well give it a try. Though I had some reservations about letting a dude rub his hands all over me. It was pretty intense though. Used the full arsenal of fingertips, knuckles, elbows, forearms etc. Sometimes he'd have climbed on the table and you felt his knees lift off as he put his entire weight onto a few knuckles into your back. Was kindof painful, but on the back I could handle it just fine. But when he went to work on the shoulders and the neck, wow, I almost cried. I honestly can not remember the last time I felt that much pain. But I was stubborn, and did not make a sound. Though having never had a massage before, I have to wonder, is that a good thing? I've heard it's supposed to... I think... Anyways I was essentially in a daze for quite a while afterwards, I'm glad they give you a cup of hot green tea to sit and recover before going out onto the street.

So sore back that night and the next day, forgot to look to see if it's all bruised.
(Just looked, there is markings, like internal scraping)

They have several different treatments, maybe I will cycle through them (even the odd ones like "cupping" or "body scraping") if I have time. $6 for 1 hr foot reflexology dealy sounds not bad at all.

Been a few days...

Sunday night (Dec 23) was our christmas dinner. Somewhat fancy seafood restaurant, all of us there plus a bunch of the locals we work with here and some of their family. Sounds like it was really expensive, but having good relations with business partners is valuable. Also good to see how we all mingled fairly well, not just each group sticking to itself. Mustafa and I had chosen the table with the couple younger ladies.

Monday was a mega wasted day. Did some work in the morning, holy crap does it get hot working in an enclosed area in hot humid weather with semi-formal clothes! Once it was done our FBO contact invited us for a drink. That was around noon. The pitchers came and were consumed, then more came and were consumed, then more, then more and more and more. I can't imagine how many. Noone wanted anymore, but still they came. People wanted to leave, but still the drinks came. So we mostly stayed, don't want to offend our host. I wasn't even drinking so I was especially bored. There was karaoke and a coworker was doing lots of crazy drunken singing. I got pressured into singing a couple. At least noone else was around, and the system was such that you couldn't tell how bad you were. It's kindof fun to try to sing bahasa malaysia songs. Played a bit of pool where I demonstrated my total lack of skill. A girl who works at the FBO joined us, and at one point she asked that I sit next to her! Of course, that's only cause a more inebriated coworker was acting a bit inappropriately and making her uncomfortable. Anyways, we were there from noon till well into the evening, the longest I've ever stayed at a bar. And I was especially annoyed cause I'd wanted to go home and then go to the Hyatt again to try again talking to the singers I mentioned previously. I actually was going to just leave, but got encouraged to stay. Later on there was some weird stuff which left me kindof confused and with mixed feelings.

Tuesday was pretty tired all day. And really unhappy for much of it too actually though that mostly cleared up. I'm sure I did some work sometime, didn't go out and have fun. Had to go to bed early, cause wednesday we start flying. Didn't feel like Christmas at all. A couple coworkers had their indonesian wives over for christmas (yeah I'm the weird one here who isn't in a serious relationship with an indonesian met on a work rotation, but I guess I'm still pretty new) but I still had Christmas dinner with a coworker. At an indian restaurant.

He's really a good guy, it's too bad that he's one of the ones who's job was eliminated.

Wednesday, first flight taking off at 6AM, meaning leave hotel 5AM meaning wake up and prep 4AM. Right away had some problems, but luckily it was a failure of a backup system that shouldn't matter. On the flight everything worked pretty well. Interesting here we talk to ATC when taking off, then we pretty much do our whole mission and start talking again as we're coming back. Back in the US, were notifying ATC of every single turn, and switching between controllers as we changed regions, etc. Too bad flightaware doesn't track outside north america, I'd have liked to see our flight path, we did a couple loops and stuff. Hit some turbulence that almost threw me out of my seat, was kindof exciting. Big commercial planes would probably barely have felt it... like in WW2 when the Queen Mary ran over the Curacoa and the passengers didn't even notice. Anyways, when it's smooth, somehow feels really 'floaty', moreso than it did on the jet, not sure why.

Landed, second flight went, then back to the hotel where it seemed there was continuous work to do, on and on, except for a few minutes to call calgary to say merry christmas. Went back to the airport in the evening when the second flight landed, to do a short simple task which of course took much longer than expected, and then we got mega-rained on.

Got to bed finally about 11:30pm, with the usual 4am wakeup. Writing this blog post on the flight.

Obviously still haven't gotten back to talk to my singers. (yeah that's right, MY singers!)

Mistake

Went out to the same place with the same guy as last night (the other guy left today, and this guy leaves tomorrow). It was a bit earlier and less crowded, but otherwise similar. He left a little early, I stayed a bit cause I decided to talk to someone. So when the singers took a break, I went and said hello. The less-pretty one was the more talkative one. Even remembered seeing us the previous night. But somehow I excused myself pretty quickly. Was kicking myself afterwards. If I felt like talking to someone, and there I was talking to someone, why did I leave? And why when I realised that did I not immediately turn around and fix it? Oh well, I'll go again sometime and say Hi again. Though I'm concerned if work hours go crazy, I might not have another chance. We'll see.

Luggage arrived

My luggage arrived last night. Surprising, since when I had called, they said they had not even located it. Then suddenly it is at the hotel. Anyways, it's good to have stuff again. The luggage was damaged unfortunately, but probably not much I can do regarding that.

Night on the town

Not really, but did go out with a couple coworkers. Some fireworks were going off, not sure why, just cause it's getting close to christmas?
Went to a bar. I drank about half of a beer, that was rather unpleasant but the guy had bought it for me so I played along.
Went to a club, it was slightly higher end but still almost no whiteys. Not really a cover charge, but you had to order an expensive drink (think my sprite was $5) to enter. Stood around and chatted for a while, then stood around and listened to the band. Haven't decided if I like it or not. I mean, a club is totally not my kind of place. And yet, I enjoyed listening to that kind of music (the kind of english music asians listen to) especially with live singers, and kindof like the group feeling. A pretty backup singer is also not bad. But then I'm still just standing around kindof lame, not dancing or drinking or chatting, so doesn't seem much fun. So when the other two decided to leave, I left too.

Not much

Fairly uneventfulness. Last night didn't have the conference call, and I completely forgot about the weekly group meeting at midnight (but would have chosen to miss it anyways). But I did get a phone call from the manager a couple hours after going to bed, can't really remember what we talked about cause I was still asleep. Heh I remember at first I had no idea what was going on, I thought I somehow had set an alarm on the phone, then I heard someone saying hello, so I then thought I accidentally phoned someone, so I hung up on him right away and he had to call again!

Still felt drained and didn't feel like doing anything. But once I got out of the hotel, felt a bit better. Bought some shorts, t-shirt and underwear to survive a couple more days, though luggage was still MIA. Walked up a hill with some coworkers, was nice with a bit of foresty area. And got them to keep walking, after all, didn't have much we needed to rush back for. After a rest back at the hotel, finished off the shopping. Started feeling grumpy about luggage again, but checked the online missing luggage site and noticed the status had changed to "item located pending confirmation" instead of "search continues" or whatever it said before, so that is encouraging.

Plane's supposed to arrive tomorrow, but we still won't get our work permits till monday probably.

Our flights require a local observer on board, and they're not used to working weekends or holidays (whereas we are of course). We'll see what happens, it would be bad for the company but nice for us workers if they won't work and won't let us work without them!

In KK

Got to KK. But my luggage didn't. I'm gonna guess it's in Taipei. My coworker was supposed to pick his up in Taipei (as I original was) but didn't with the short connection, so he is also without his luggage. Got me down again. Oh well, naught that I can do about it. My brother survived a week in mauritius or something without his luggage.

Met the field manager, he seems like a good guy. Got a couple things setup. The hotel is very 'fancy', but I don't like it much, the room seems big but empty, uninviting, the bathroom also dim. At least I have internet (not wireless).

Tired from the trip and stupid stuff, was going to go out to try to buy clothes but it got mega rainy. Maybe tonight, but I kindof want this day to be done. Maybe tomorrow, though hopefully by then I won't have to.

Rest of the day just sent a few emails, went out to eat (at a touristy place) with the several coworkers, they're all pretty good except for the cigarette smoke abundance.

Really want this day to be done but there'll be a conference call in a while that I should try to stay up for.

Another transfer and flight

Got on the plane. Turned out the seat was not too bad. It was 3-4-3 so I was one away from the aisle. But it was the front seat of a section, so no seat in front of me, so no storage, an awkward arm rest table (which I think explains why the seat felt so tight, I didn't think my butt was that large), and can't stick legs under the seat in front of you. As usual, after a while of sitting, I got up and wandered around, settling at the back of the plane. And got to talking to a stewardess. Quite nice to talk to. Most of the passengers were sleeping by this time, so she wasn't too busy. Made the trip more pleasant. Almost got her in trouble from a supervisor by sitting in the stewardess seat. Just as we relocated to the galley, turbulence started so I had to go back to my proper seat.

Tried to rest a while. Then got up and wandered again. Found a different stewardess cause shifts had changed, chatted a while while she prepared stuff in the galley. Eventually she had to go do other stuff so I went and sat down again. Is it weird that I do stuff like that? I think I'd be really bored and too uncomfortable to just sit quiet in my seat for 14 hours. Around then, I was happier than I'd been all day.

Got off the plane, sure I was going to miss this connection. Only had 10 minutes. But someone had a sign with my name on it (and my coworker's name who was somewhere on the same flight) and they sent me on a short cut and got on board with plenty of time. Eventually my coworker showed up, it was obvious it was him so I introduced myself.

Interestingly, as soon as I got off the plane in Taipei, it smelled like asia. I don't know how else to describe it, it wasn't bad or good or smell of food or anything, it was just a smell which reminded me of asia.

Pretty uneventful flight. Nowhere really to go hang out on the smaller plane. Passengers beside me were not talkative (probably not enough english knowledge). Talked with a stewardess as she was stuck behind a meal cart, turns out she has a friend who did engg at U of C. Too bad she's continuing on from KK, not staying a few nights, we could have hung out.

LAXative gives you the runs

Over an hour late, we left Calgary.

Pilot made up time on the way to LAX. But since there had been some 'medical emergency' about 10 minutes after we had taken off, we waited for paramedics to take them off the plane after we landed. Running around LAX felt familiar. During the flight I'd been pretty confident I'd miss the connection, but there was enough time. Malaysia airlines area of the airport seemed really disorganized. But the guy gave me boarding passes all the way to KK, and said he'd retag my bags so I don't have to pick them up and drop them again in taipei. Hope he's successful. Realised He took my baggage tag and didn't give me a new one.

Got the "sierra" (special extra thorough screening) treatment again. Got to the gate. Noone had boarded yet. And a pretty small area. With another international flight at the gate right beside it. Two 747s together hold about 1000 passengers? I found a place away from the main crowd. Still no internet here though.

I believe the RO is on this flight too. I could look around for him. But I've never seen him before.

My itinerary says this is 14.5 hours with no meal. That would suck. I don't believe that. Also noticed the boarding pass says only one carry on, 5 kg max. I think my laptop and my small backpack exceed that. I don't believe that either.

My seat is column F. If the seats are 3-5-3, that would make F the worst possible. Since I was one of the last to check in, that makes sense. But hopefully it's incorrect.

Wish the airport had wireless. I could use skype to talk to someone.

Looks like people have started to move, maybe my flights boarding. "boarding time" was 1.5 hrs ago.

On my way

Considering I seem to like traveling, and have a job that involves traveling, kindof strange that I get so grumpy and stressed when it comes time to go somewhere.

Besides missing someone.

On the way there, realised I'd forgotten the small christmas gift I was going to open on christmas day that my mom thought I'd make use of.

At the airport, stood in line for over an hour to check in. The line wasn't very long, but air canada only had two people (besides the one or two who just walked around and didn't really do anything). I couldn't use the self service booths like I used to always do, cause these days (last time and this time) it doesn't work for me, and the check in clerk has to make some phone call and chat a long time before they can do anything. Don't know why that is.

Ok, so it's too late to go out to have a decent meal with the family, I guess it's crappy Harvey's at the airport. But no, now that I've checked in to go to the US, there's no turning back. Go to customs go directly to customs do not pass harveys do not collect chicken sandwich for passing harveys. For anywhere else, you can drop off your checked luggage and then go do whatever, but since the US is a 'special needs' child, can't do that. But, we were able to stand just outside the customs door and send dad to go get Harveys and bring it back and stand there eating our crappy harveys and finally go in.

I just have one boarding pass. I'll have to get the boarding pass for the next leg of the trip in Los Angeles. And then, because whoever set up my ticket didn't have it all on one ticket or something, my luggage only goes as far as Taipei, where I'll have to pick it up and check in again. It's not even with a different airline.

In the calgary airport, I can't get to my gate to go to LA, it's past another restricted access security door. Not sure why. At least there are lots of other people standing around. Through some glass I can see my gate. The sign shows my destination and flight number, but the time is different. Maybe my flight's been delayed. An announcement might be nice. There's no internet here, so I'm just typing in notepad to post later.

Wonder if I'll make the connection in LAX. Chris and I missed it on the way home from costa rica cause of the long customs lines. As mentioned, would've been so much nicer to go Cathay via vancouver, would've avoided the hassle that's always associated with the USA, and had shorter flights. And likely prettier stewardesses. Ok trying to make a joke at least. Maybe it was more expensive, but more likely our american travel agent didn't think about those things. I'll be sure to email some comments.

What a happy start to the trip.

Health plan

I don't understand how it can take the pharmacy over 40 minutes to fill my prescription. I can see the box with my pills right there on the shelf. Ok maybe they need to count how many pills are in it. George Carlin suggested most pharmacists are sampling their wares which would explain a few things.

But, I got over three hundred dollars of malarone for twelve bucks. I'd forgotten how nice it is to have a health plan. No more getting my dental work done in foreign countries for me!

Early Christmas

Opened my gifts at my parents place yesterday. Felt so wrong though, was kindof unhappy. Supposed to open gifts on christmas day with everyone else opening gifts.

Saw an accordian-bus being pulled by a tow truck, it was kindof neat.

Falling can feel wonderful. It's hitting the ground that hurts. And knowing it's there, knowing the inevitable conclusion, but not seeming to be able to stop yourself, that sucks too. Maybe you look upwards at the sky, try for the out-of-sight out-of-mind for a while. But if you can stand to look down, maybe you can control yourself enough to make sure you don't crush someone under you.

Think it's bedtime again

Intermap Christmas Party

Some similar, some different compared to last year. Mingled with various people. Sat mostly with my department, though of course there's only a few in town at any given time. Sat between another RFT who's kindof weird, and a future RFT's girlfriend? sister? I dunno. Discovered another guy in the office who's normally pretty quiet became pretty talkative. His girlfriend didn't seem to be having a very good time though.

Food was pretty good, nothing special. Felt very full though. And it went on very late, food wasn't done till close to 11 pm I think. Then there was the service awards, which is of course kindof boring but there was enough joking that it wasn't too bad.

As always, most people left immediately after the official things were done. And I stayed till the end. It was Kathy, Charles, Steve and Krista. Ernie was away this year unfortunately. Lots of fun though. The alcohol budget wasn't used so they had a whole bottle of port, and then started working on another one. They weren't completely out of it or anything, but did have a funny tie-tying contest where they ended up having real trouble tying their ties. Left around 2:00-2:30.

Yeah not much interesting to describe really, but it was fun.

Edmonton week

again...

Got back to calgary sunday evening. Headed up to edmonton monday. Always a good time, figured I should take advantage of the opportunity. Though it felt like I should be in calgary doing something in preparation for my overseas rotation. Mostly played some games, tried to go for a hike in elk island but the weather went bad, but still got in some archery again. chatted and joked, the usual. Chris was super pleased with the 'souvenir' I got him from portland, which in turn made me very happy. Like when I go to G&E's place and see some stuff I gave them appearing to be enjoyed, makes me very happy.

Returned thursday, with almost perfect timing to complete my secret plans. Disobeyed some advice, and things worked out great and coincidentally I even got to feel like a hero, kindof, even if it was just my imagination telling me that.

With field rotations and trips to edmonton, in the period of time Oct 1 - Jan 15, I will have spent 29 nights in calgary, with 78 nights away. And depending on how things go in early-mid january, might continue racking up that away number. Not a bad thing, just kindof odd, especially re my condo.

Radar operator

One not so cool part of the evening was realizing that when I read the job safety plan earlier and saw the crew list, there was Sensor Support Technician: Scott, Radar Operator #1: Matt, Radar Operator #2: N/A. I'm pretty sure there will be two flights a night, on a King Air they're like 6 hrs each. The system isn't going fully automated till Jan 15, about the end of my rotation. Meaning I get to be a radar operator, sitting bored in the plane for several hours a night. Thought I was done with that, other than for testing things and training people. Pretty bummed out about that. Will still have whatever sensor support issues there are, hopefully not much, though with weather and maintenance here this last little while, some upgrades will not have had much testing before the plane is in sabah. And at the beginning I'll be training the other radar operator and pilots, so I'll probably spend the first few days spending 12 or more hours sitting in the plane. Don't want to complain, but might ask management to put another radar operator with it.

McMenamin's

Since flights were cancelled, almost all of the field crew (9 of the 11 of us here) went out for dinner. Went to a place called McMenamin's . It was dark when we arrived, not many lights lighting the parking lot we found. Walking towards the buildings we passed through a little garden area, though it was dark, it smelled pleasant and gardeny. Started finding buildings. Didn't know where the people we were meeting were (a few had arrived earlier) so we started walking around. Seems the place is a large cluster of old fashioned (1911 I think it said) buildings, one being a pub, another being a restaurant, a hotel, etc nicely mixed together. A small building stunk of cigars. A large courtyard area had a fire going in the centre. In the basement of one building, found a brewery / winery. Upstairs there appeared to be private dining rooms, and a smattering of hotel rooms. It was really neat. Dan was wandering with me, and even though we got a call letting us know where people had found each other and were eating, I made him explore a little more. I honestly would have liked to go wandering around again after dinner, but I guess the rest are too "grown up" to get excited about something like that, and were just there for the dinner. Oh forgot to mention, a quartet in olde fashioned costumes was going around singing carols. For a while Dan and I were at a table by ourselves, since the main table didn't have room for us, I felt a bit left out, but eventually some other table left and we were able to rearrange the place. Overall a really pleasant evening, but like I said, would have been cool to have a friend to go exploring with.

No flight

No flight tonight, so I guess I could've come back today, oh well. Wanted to go out and do something this afternoon, but was waiting for someone for 'half an hour' which ended up being two and a half hours, so it was kindof late. Went to a shopping mall instead, just for the heck of it. Feels like I should be shopping to take advantage of exchange rates and such, but didn't really think of much I want to get. Was walking in the mall, then suddenly I realised "I've been in this mall before!" An ice cream store sparked my memory.

In general this time in portland wasn't as good as the last. Partly cause I was here not long ago, partly had less free time, partly cause the weather wasn't so nice. oh well. I don't consider it a wasted trip, but I don't consider it to have been a very worthwhile trip.

Jiggly

Heard an ad on the radio for Jiggly, which considers itself a "gentleman's club". I didn't hear much of it, but I did hear how going there will lead to an increased chance of getting accepted into university, and other such claims. Yeah. Jiggly.

I might have to get an iPhone, just so I can fit in (though I don't think I need one). The first couple days here, there were two calgary coworkers here, and whenever we sat down for lunch together, immediately they'd both pull out their iPhones, and I'd feel so left out!

Portland's been okay. Haven't been able to go out much. Was supposed to have come back to calgary today, but got requested to stay a couple extra days, essentially to give the other guy a bit of time off since he's been working so much and getting burned out. I agreed to stay, though I actually had really been looking forward to something in calgary. Maybe I can go do something tomorrow afternoon.

One of the ROs is quite pissed off about losing his job. The other is unhappy but completely understands it, trying to focus on the positives, and wants to leave on good terms. I enjoy spending time with that guy much more. I went on a flight with him tonight, kindof train him on the new system he'll get to run for his last few weeks. Tomorrow I'll probably go up with the other guy, that won't be so nice. Also one of the pilots on that flight is my not-so-favorite pilot from last time I was here. Oh well.

Portland

It's still autumn here, though less of the pretty autumn, as many of the leaves have now fallen. It's about 30 degrees warmer than it was in calgary, which is really nice. Still no snow here, though it's rained a bunch recently (though I brought the sunshine when I arrived yesterday apparently) and looking out the window right now (7:30 AM) I hope the plane arrived back earlier cause no way it can land in this fog.

Otherwise not much new to report from Portland. I saw that girl but don't think she saw or recognized me. Oh and learned that the aircraft mechanic that pretty much everyone disliked has been fired, he finally pissed too many people off and had given our company a really bad name with the people we were working with here. Heh and the racist/conspiracytheory pilot that people generally dislike is here and apparently just damaged another rental car (he destroyed one shortly after we started back in pueblo 6 weeks ago).

Oh, at a vietnamese restaurant the waitress told me the cook thought I must have been asian, cause americans only order pho but I ordered hu tieu. Interesting.

Pitch black

When hitting the fan switch before my shower, I accidentally hit the lights off. I decided to leave it that way. Being an inside-room, there was absolutely no light. Not like, wait several minutes and start seeing the outline of things, no, I mean no light. Was kindof fun showering that way, just as something different and a little weird.

A warning though... make sure you check the status of the toilet lid before use!

Back to Portland

Back to portland for the week, for some 'training' though I probably know most of what I need to know.

Probably most of the field staff have changed since I was there, I guess I'll get to meet a few new people.

I just realised, I'll probably see "gorgeous" again, didn't expect that. Haha, I bet she won't be so gorgeous this time!

Malaysia

Happened to be in the manager's office when a field personnel coordinator type person called to discuss scheduling. Won't bother with the details, but I ended up with the opportunity to go to Sabah. I'd already been telling people I wished I was the one going there, and then suddenly the opportunity is there! And suddenly I wasn't so sure. And they weren't telling me I had to. Mainly because it'd be about Dec 17 to mid-january, meaning the whole christmas and new years time not here. Not only just christmas dinner, but I seem to see so many more people at this time of year. And I recently "rediscovered" another reason I want to stay. But, decided the opportunity was too good to pass up. Also, if things are scheduled as fairly as they'd like, the people who have to work christmas will alternate year to year, so this would mean I should have next year off, provided I'm still doing this job. Lastly, if I did stay, there's a small chance I would get forced to work christmas anyways and it'd be in the US, which would be the worst of both worlds.

So yeah, pretty excited about that, but of course it may not happen, things are not set in stone and even when they are, they aren't :)

The walk to work

Was in the office this whole past week. A different side of the office than before, I kindof miss my old location, but it's probably better to be where I am now. A couple days I was the only person from my group there, was a little weird. Work in the office was ok and fairly normal.

Walking across the river, watched the almost slushiness of the ice flowing on the waters surface, while solid ice rested below. Of course, thought about how if I were to jump/fall off the bridge, I would surely die. Even to be put down gently in the centre of the river would mean death, there would be such instant agony from the frigid water. I thought how if I was placed on a tiny island in the centre of the river, my best hope would probably to wait there a couple weeks though starving and hope the river started to freeze over. Actually, perhaps I could make it to shore. Just try totally pump myself up, tingly with adrenaline, pretty much close my eyes and start running. I even started wanting to try it. I wonder if I could actually make it. Unfortunately, it's not the sort of thing you can just go try. And even if it met with success it would likely include major tissue damage. Anyways, that's the sort of odd thoughts that go through my head.

Been wearing my electric blue long johns to avoid legs freezing on the walk. The rest of me is warm enough, except exposed skin. I see people still jogging (for exercise, not just to reach the next warm place faster) or riding their bike, I can't imagine doing that.

My hair appears to be more resistant to becoming hat-hair than I think it used to. Interesting.